Futhermore, lack of prospects hurts the ability to acquire MLB talent. For a baseball GM, Players are essentially a Zero-Sum Game. When you have nothing of value, you can rarely pick up anything of value. It is one thing to use the farm to trade for proven talent. Its another to ignore it completely.

This is why it always astounds me when people get all bent out of shape when the Sox trade "valuable" prospects to get established talent. The odds of trading away a superstar are pretty slim...in my opinion the worst deal KW did was the one for Swisher. We lost Gio. Other than that....haven't lost much major league talent in trades. For us to get some of the quality players we have gotten with guys who have amounted to nothing is a reflection of good maneuvering by KW. Peavy for three mediocre pitchers? Genius.

This is why it always astounds me when people get all bent out of shape when the Sox trade "valuable" prospects to get established talent. The odds of trading away a superstar are pretty slim...in my opinion the worst deal KW did was the one for Swisher. We lost Gio. Other than that....haven't lost much major league talent in trades. For us to get some of the quality players we have gotten with guys who have amounted to nothing is a reflection of good maneuvering by KW. Peavy for three mediocre pitchers? Genius.

Clayton Richard pitched pretty well in his 2 seasons prior to the last. It was in SD though.

Chris Young and Daniel Hudson are both good players that came from KW trades.

Pretty much. Rowand was drafted in the 1998, since then here's the entire list of position players the Sox have drafted, signed, and have gotten to the Majors. I'm excluding guys who were drafted but didn't sign and were drafted again later by other teams. This is THE ENTIRE LIST for the last 15 years in order of career WAR to this point. Players bolded are the ones who reached the Majors still with the Sox... May want to send women and small children into another room, boy, is this going to be ugly...

Chris Young - 2001 - 13.4 WAR

Mike Morse - 2000 - 5.1 WAR

Ryan Sweeney - 2003 - 5.0 WAR

Gordon Beckham - 2008 - 3.5 WAR

Chris Stewart - 2001 - 1.7 WAR

Jeremy Reed - 2002 - 1.1 WAR

Chris Getz - 2005 - 0.8 WAR

Brent Morel - 2008 - 0.5 WAR

Donny Lucy - 2004 - 0.1 WAR

Jordan Danks - 2008 - (0.2) WAR

Brian Anderson - 2003 - (0.6) WAR

Chris Carter - 2005 - (0.6) WAR

Brandon Allen - 2004 - (1.2) WAR

Josh Fields - 2004 - (1.4) WAR

Andy Gonzalez - 2001 - (1.9) WAR

That is a really pathetic list. 15 major leaguers in 15 years, zero stars and only a couple of productive players.

"Keith Law sucks, his prospect ratings are good for toilet paper and not much else."

That is all.

I'm not really pro or against Law. He's got a different perspective on things. He doesn't rate at all based on how advanced guys are, caring more about ceiling and likelihood of projections versus what's closer to usable.

I know a lot of White Sox fans despise him, but its not like everything horrible he's said about our system and prospects isn't 100% true...

I also do not have a big problem with Law. Law is not ever on the Sox side, but he also has not been very wrong about Sox prospects. Big Ceiling, future star like players have not come up through the Sox Farm (sans Chris Sale who got about 2 cups of Coffee and a Donut in the minors). Bland is right that Law ranks based on the likelihood of being great, not being useful. That is why guys like Santiago, Quintana etc. don't really count in these rankings. A lot of teams get back end rotation, fill in lineup, bullpen contributions from these fringe types.

Law ranked Hawkins 74 in his Top 100, which was good, and Carlos Sanchez got some praise in his "10 that just missed". He writes with Sanchez that he doesn't see the defensive tools to be an everyday SS. He thinks he will hit .300, but lack the power/offensive ability to be a great 2b. Kind of sounds like he projects him to be a .300 hitter but with a low .700 OPS. Kind of a 8-9 hitter.

Pretty much. Rowand was drafted in the 1998, since then here's the entire list of position players the Sox have drafted, signed, and have gotten to the Majors. I'm excluding guys who were drafted but didn't sign and were drafted again later by other teams. This is THE ENTIRE LIST for the last 15 years in order of career WAR to this point. Players bolded are the ones who reached the Majors still with the Sox... May want to send women and small children into another room, boy, is this going to be ugly...

Chris Young - 2001 - 13.4 WAR

Mike Morse - 2000 - 5.1 WAR

Ryan Sweeney - 2003 - 5.0 WAR

Gordon Beckham - 2008 - 3.5 WAR

Chris Stewart - 2001 - 1.7 WAR

Jeremy Reed - 2002 - 1.1 WAR

Chris Getz - 2005 - 0.8 WAR

Brent Morel - 2008 - 0.5 WAR

Donny Lucy - 2004 - 0.1 WAR

Jordan Danks - 2008 - (0.2) WAR

Brian Anderson - 2003 - (0.6) WAR

Chris Carter - 2005 - (0.6) WAR

Brandon Allen - 2004 - (1.2) WAR

Josh Fields - 2004 - (1.4) WAR

Andy Gonzalez - 2001 - (1.9) WAR

Ouch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittle42

Waiting for someone to convince me that those failures haven't hurt the franchise.

If the Sox had Clayton Richard (in his current form and considering his last three years) he would be in the starting rotating over Quintana and Santiagio. Or Floyd would have been traded. Either way, he has a much better track record than Quintana and Santiago has started what, a handful of games... if that?

If the Sox had Clayton Richard (in his current form and considering his last three years) he would be in the starting rotating over Quintana and Santiagio. Or Floyd would have been traded. Either way, he has a much better track record than Quintana and Santiago has started what, a handful of games... if that?

PEAVY wouldn't be on the sox if we had Clayton. What exactly are you arguing? That Clayton is better than Peavy? That's a tough sell.